Weighing of the Heart by thesedatedprince

[raw]
made by thesedatedprince for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

All done :). This is my entry, 'Weighing of the Heart'. There's like a million more things I would have liked to have added and none of them can be completed in the two hours left.

Instructions:

You are trying to unlock all the audience members to get the ending.

Add an audience member to the audience by clicking on their picture on the select screen. Remove them by clicking the picture again.

Each audience member has an opinion on which actor will suffer in the afterlife - this is indicated by a tick or cross on the board after the show.

The ticks are added up to indicate whether an actor 'will not suffer', 'will suffer' or 'will suffer excessively'.

Try different combinations of audience members to unlock more audience members - hints for this are present on the 'HINTS' screen.

Unlock all 4 audience members and have them watch the show to view the ending.

Eye Unlockables: Sometimes you will see a sparkly thing on stage. This is an eye unlockable. Click it to retrieve it.

If an audience member's eye unlockable has been collected, they can see more in certain scenes. The eye on the back of the chair indicates whether the audience has their eye unlocked and is paying attention in that scene (goes from left to right).

If an audience member has their eye unlocked, and their eye is open they may see another sparkly thing! Click to collect it - this will be another eye unlockable.

Click the Hints button on the select page to get hints for which seats the audience members need to see the next eye unlockable.

Collect all the eye unlockables to unlock the 'True ending' (slightly bugged)

Ratings

Overall 513th 3⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 577th 2.423⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 159th 3.654⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 330th 3.538⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 362th 3.269⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 209th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 184th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

newbieDev
05. Oct 2020 · 14:23 UTC
Art style is old fashioned vintage looking. I absolutely love it. I tried playing on mobile and I got stuck on the sebastion part..i think if you add a tutorial or maybe your narrator part might have had instructions on how to play, that would great impact on your game!!
drnoir
05. Oct 2020 · 14:29 UTC
This is an interesting interpretation of the theme, influenced somewhat by the Egyptian concept of the weighing of the heart I guess? I liked the replayability with different audience members but not sure if there ever is an ending of some sort or perfect combination that unlocks and ending. Graphics are consistent in style and for what they are quite nice especially the characters - would of been good to perhaps have portraits for the crowd members as well I think. Overall an interesting spin on the theme.
JaviCoder
08. Oct 2020 · 18:43 UTC
visually appealing and done with care. A very interesting game.
freeworld
08. Oct 2020 · 18:44 UTC
Very fancy art/mood/style-wise with fitting music and a very interesting concept. The animations feel especially detailed and nice, it looks like you invested a lot of time here. Also I think you really nailed the theme.

Unfortunately I somehow felt a little stuck always watching the same scene with citizen A or B getting killed over and over :D I like the people running backwards train :P (I was warned)
Vleue
08. Oct 2020 · 18:53 UTC
nice setting as a theater, but hard to guess what you're supposed to do... music goes well with the settings, but the interaction sounds are a little strange.

interesting loops when you see almost the same thing each time
drtizzle
08. Oct 2020 · 21:36 UTC
I have to be honest I had no clue what to do. I do like the music and the visual style, so I clicked "Watch the show" 3 times...and watched the show.

So what can I say?
I had no clue of what was going on, but I did really like it!
cleitoneldorn
08. Oct 2020 · 21:50 UTC
Amazing! I liked everything about this game, and I find the ending very surprising. 5 start!
619tmSECTION
08. Oct 2020 · 22:10 UTC
I think it´s an interesting idea but I had no clue what to do. The text at the beginning was displaying too slowly. It would be better if you replaced the intro with an in game tutorial, but if you leave the text try to make it faster and maybe skippable.
I like te concept and the whole theater thing, but I found the gameplay a bit complex or I didn´t understand it enough. With some work this could be a really interesting game.
thesnide
09. Oct 2020 · 11:31 UTC
Nice music & nice graphics, but as @619tmsection, I have no clue to what to do :wink:
I guess I now understand your question in https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/weighing-of-the-heart/question-changing-game-description-pages-post-compo and I totally second what I said there : do give any hints in the descriptions that might enhance the gamer's experience.
MatchaMaze
10. Oct 2020 · 02:24 UTC
Really interesting puzzle game!
The ending part should be skippable because going through it after every try to unlock the eyes was a bit too much
Jordan Kelly
10. Oct 2020 · 18:03 UTC
I was completely baffled and utterly enraptured by that. Wow.

*Edit*: That really was the most wild experience I've had in the game jam so far. Incredible.
island-jam-2-group-3
10. Oct 2020 · 18:49 UTC
I have to recognize that I found it a bit confusing even with the hints and most of the time "tested combinations" blindly ^^U Other than that, this game has a nice ambientation and I kept playing until I got the ending, so good job!

I found a minor bugs: when there are 3 of them and all deselected, Byron card would float over the hints.
burnedkirby
15. Oct 2020 · 05:40 UTC
Interesting and thought-provoking game. I wasn't able to figure out the eye-hint for the fourth person unfortunately. The ending I saw was logical but morally conflicted in my opinion. Good work on creating this thought-provoking game.
ruthiepee
15. Oct 2020 · 19:09 UTC
Thanks for including the detailed instructions, I had trouble figuring out the gameplay on my own. I did make it to the ending (which was really funny). The loop of the theater scene made it a little repetitive but I enjoyed the concept and all the dialogue at the end.
UkuleleFury
23. Oct 2020 · 02:39 UTC
Very interesting! I got through three cinematic experiences, and am not sure what to do now. It looks like one person is rating higher than the other, but I'm not sure why, or what I should do about it? I like the art and music style!